Rescuers search for missing migrants after boat capsizes near Italy

Pope Francis has described the sinking of a migrant boat off the coast of Italy as a "disgrace".

‘‘The word disgrace comes to me,’’ the Pope said during an audience, calling for prayers on behalf of the dead and their families. ‘‘Let us unite our efforts so that similar tragedies do not happen again. Only a decided collaboration among all can help to stop them.’’

The ship carrying African migrants to Europe caught fire and capsized on Thursday off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, killing at least 133 people as hundreds were dumped into the sea, officials said.

Overwhelmed: Bodies of the drowned migrants are lined up in the port of Lampedusa. Photo: AP

Over 150 people were rescued but about 200 were still unaccounted for.

It was one of the deadliest recent accidents in the perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing that thousands of African migrants make every year, seeking a new life in the European Union.

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Smugglers charge thousands of dollars a head to slip people into Europe aboard overcrowded, barely seaworthy fishing boats, providing no life vests or other safety features.

Italy's coast guard later said divers saw at least another 20 bodies around the boat, which was now lying on the bottom of the sea.

Lampedusa is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland — a mere 113 kilometres off the coast of Tunisia — and is the frequent destination for smugglers' boats.

The 20-metre boat was believed to be carrying 450 to 500 people, according to the International Organisation for Migration. The boat left from Tripoli with migrants from Eritrea, Ghana and Somalia, Italian coast guard spokesman Marco Di Milla told The Associated Press.

Antonio Candela, a government health commissioner, said 159 people had been rescued.

Rescue crews hauled body bags by the dozens off coast guard ships on Thursday and lined them up under multi-coloured tarps on Lampedusa's docks. At sea, Italian coast guard ships, local fishing boats and helicopters from across the region combed the waters, trying to find survivors.

"Most of them can't swim. Only the strongest survived," said Simona Moscarelli, a legal expert for the IOM in Rome.

Only three of the estimated 100 women on board have been rescued so far and none of the 10 children believed on board were saved, she said. Two of the dead were pregnant.

Commander Floriana Segreto of the Italian coast guard told the AP that "divers of the coast guard have found the boat on the sea floor at a depth of 40 metres. At least 20 bodies were seen around the boat. The divers have yet to go inside the boat."

She added they were waiting for the weather to improve before they could recover more bodies.

"We received the first alert at 7am when a boat reported people in the water," he said.

A man is carried off an ambulance at the Palermo Civico hospital, Italy, after being rescued off the Italian island of Lampedusa. Photo: AP Photo

Giusi Nicolini, the mayor of Lampedusa island near where the incident happened, told news channel SkyTG24: "The survivors are in a state of shock.

"They have been in the water since the early hours of the morning," Mr Nicolini said.

A local doctor said a three-year-old boy and a two-year-old girl were among the victims.

The accident was the latest in many drownings involving migrants travelling on rickety fishing boats or rubber dinghies in the Mediterranean, where thousands have died in recent years.

"The first assistance was provided by people on pleasure boats who heard the screams," Antonino Candela, a local emergency medical worker, said.

Mr Nicolini said the migrants had told her they lit a small fire on their boat around 800 metres from the shore to attract the attention of coast guards after their vessel suffered engine failure.

The fire then spread, sowing panic on board which caused the boat to flip over and eventually sink.

Shaken survivors wrapped in thermal blankets – many of them bare-chested – were seen arriving on the dock in images shown on Italian television, as an emergency worker broke down in tears.

The bodies were being taken to a hangar at the local airport because there was no more room in the local morgue on the remote southern Italian island, which has a population of around 6000.

"This is a tragedy without precedent. In many years of work here I have never seen anything like this," Pietro Bartolo, a local doctor, was quoted by the Italian news agency ANSA as saying.